CHRISTMAS

I love love love the Christmas season! Mostly because it means that I get to see my family whom I hardly am able to see throughout the rest of the year. I haven't seen my dad since the beginning of the summer, so I am secretly most excited about that, but for everything else as well! This year, I don't get to go home until Christmas Eve, but that just means I don't have to help out with any Christmas Tree sales! ;) I'm also secretly extremely excited about that! ha..

I feel like my life changes at all times. I never know exactly what my life will be like the following month, yet alone the following week! I am so grateful to be where I am at right now in my life as well. Things have really been working out well and I am the happiest I have ever been since I've lived in Utah. I think I've finally realized what true happiness is and although it's taken me about three years not to be happy.. I'm glad I am! It's about time! I have been really trying to figure out what I was doing in my life that was making me unhappy and by eliminating those things, it's made all the difference! I am so grateful for my blessings!I have a great job, a beautiful/wonderful religion I am apart of, and the most incredible family anyone could ever ask for! life is good!

With that being said- I get to be home for 12 days. I hope they go by very slow and that I'm able to soak up each day. It's likely that I won't see my family until the summer, so I want to be able to spend as much time with them as possible. I'm also excited to see high school friends for a night or two. It's always fun to see my friends that I grew up with since elementary school and catch up with eachother's lives. It's crazy how you can spend every day with the same people then one day you graduate high school and never speak to most of them ever again. It's hard for me to imagine that I was in high school just a few years ago. I feel like it was all a large blur. ha... I really only REALLY remember cheerleading. I don't even remember playing volleyball or softball very well... ahh alzheimers already?! This is not good! haha..

I'm also excited to see how much my siblings have grown since I've seen them last. Alisyn played basketball and from what I hear she's quite the little ball player. That's really exciting! Hunter played football for a 4A high school and actually was on varsity his first year. That is incredible to me. I taught my siblings well... ;) Chris is getting SO handsome! i'm excited to see him. He is, hands down, the funniest sibling I have. Man I love that guy....

HOME SWEET HOME! I'm ready!

THANKSGIVING

This Thanksgiving, Nichole and I went up to Sarah and Ryan's in Twin Falls. What a fun time we had!!! we made fun lotions and soap bars as well as set up christmas and had the most amazing thanksgiving dinner three girls could ever make! :) Here are some pictures of the weekend:

Diesel's Christmas picture! ha jk. he's a cute dog!

Us Girls. Good photography skills, Ryan!

Our beautiful dinner! This was my pre-edited photo. sorry for the reflection in the glass...

Gooding, Idaho Hospital that Ryan is in charge of. It'll be done in February!

My favorite picture that I took over the weekend... This is right outside the hospital

Arizona/Breast Cancer 3-Day

Thursday night, Kara, Heber, Joseph and I set off on a looooong drive to Arizona. Our trip was filled with so many fun memories that'll last forever! Kara and I stayed up just laughing hysterically at nothing, and we even got Joseph to sing his lungs out to Taylor Swift. It was priceless!
    
Their mom, Analee, was in a 3day, 60 mile breast cancer walk. Having two people in her immediate family struggling with cancer as well as a good friend of hers pass away due to breast cancer, this was a very special time for her to be in a walk for such a great cause. Overall, the walkers raised I think around 2 million dollars to go towards finding the cure for breast cancer. It was amazing to me to see all of these woman (there were a few men as well) struggle and fight to finish the walk. Analee was always at the top of the pack just going, going, going. I am so proud of her for being so determined, and being so incredibly positive through it all! I am so glad I was able to go and support her! Here are a few pictures from the weekend:

The rose they all received at the closing ceremonies

The three ribbons representing both types of cancer in their family as well as the breast cancer ribbon

Jim and Ann

Kara and Analee a little blurry...

The family

This has terrible picture quality- but I love it.

  

OUTLET SALE

Hey everyone! Our warehouse outlet at my company is having a massive sale coming up the 18th-21st of this month. For all of you who live in Utah, there is a coupon that'll get you ten bucks off... I bought a few things from the sale in the spring- It is definitely worth coming to. It's kind of the first come first serve basis, so the earlier you come check it out, the better! If you'd like the coupon. Email me or include your email to this post and i'll get that to you. To get an idea of what our company sales, view http://www.libertymountain.com/

Thanks! :)

New House

So here are just a couple of pictures of my new place- I know there's not a lot- but maybe i'll decide to not be lazy and actually take pictures of everything.... maybe! :) This was RIGHT before our massive... massive... halloween party so it's all decorated but here they are:

The outside

Entry WayLiving Room/ Kitchen. It looks empty because we moved things around for the party.... but here it is!!

My Thoughts

This post is titled "my thoughts" although I don't really know how to put all my thoughts into one posting as they are all very random and all of them pertain to very different aspects of my life.

First off: My gratitude for all I have- I am moving into a home with a friend of mine this weekend. Just to give you a quick picture.... She lives alone in about 3500 sq feet of her 5000 sq ft home. There are 5 bedrooms, and with me there, we will still have 3 extra. It's beautiful and massive, and rent is extremely reasonable for all I get. What a blessing to have a place to live! Along these same lines, I have the most incredible family! I miss them more than anything. I mostly just dread the fact that I'll never be able to see my younger siblings through their growing stages in life. I missed Hunter's entire first year playing football for a 4A school. I missed Alisyn's first years of Elementary and Christian starting his high school years next year... I'll miss Ali learning to ride a bike, Chris's first dates, and Hunter bulking up and turning from a little tiny guy into a big muscular boy! :) Man the things I would give to live close to my family! Unfortunately, I know Salt Lake is where I'm supposed to be right now.

Second: My dating life- I ALWAYS get myself into situations where I fall for guys who are just out of my league I suppose. I don't know why good, strong LDS boys just don't seem to have a desire to date me. If they are good guys, then the sparks just aren't there; however, the ones that I LOVE to be around and am completely comfortable with leave me in the friend zone and want me to set them up with my friends. It's really frustrating... my solution: stop dating. period. haha... good, I know.

Third: Jon and Kate Plus 8- It makes me sad to think that in just a month, it'll be renamed Kate Plus 8. This is to show you how media and fame can completely tear a family into shreds. Those poor kids are crazy spoiled and have to grow up with cameras in their face since day one... yet do they really have a "home" and privacy, and parents who love and adore eachother?! Sadly, no. Do I love this TV show and watch it regularly? Yes! ha...

Last but not least: Expenses. I hate money. I have a great job, but then again do I ever see my paychecks at the end of the month? nope! Do I get to save even close to what I anticipated to save each month? not a chance. I cannot say I spend my money frivilously, because in no way do I. I am grateful for the 6k of work sitting in my mouth, as well as my cute little car parked in the parking lot. I'm grateful for insurance in case I get in an accident. I'm grateful I was able to have a little credit card help when I wasn't making any money in school and had to support myself.... ALTHOUGH, I don't want to pay for any of it... anyone want to be my sponser?! haha!

okay. the end.

new blog

So, I just started my photo blog... it's photojennix.blogspot.com. I took some engagements the past weekened and put those up there. I have some baby and nature ones that I am editing now and will be posting on there as well! :) If you know of anyone in the salt lake/provo area who is either looking for senior pictures, engagements, baby or kid pictures let me know!

LOGO

o, here is what my logo may or may not look like. It says ".com" right now simply because when I do have a website, that's what will go there. photojennic.com domain is already taken so I have to kind of play around with my name a little bit, but let me know what you think of this... just to go on the bottom of my pictures. I don't think it's too bad...

CAMERA

FINALLY! I caved in and bought myself a beautiful DSLR! It's a Canon 20D, almost exactly what we shot with at Dorian Studio back in Washington. It's a little bit older (2005) and was replaced by the Canon 30D in 2006 which is what is used at Dorian.

Anyway, I'm stoked. I now need to get a nice MacbookPro and I can be all set to start this sucker up! In the short run, it's a lot of money, but it'll pay for itself in the long run! :) yay.

FIRE!

Today around 11:30, I was looking out the window and told my manager to look at the clouds that seems to be moving really fast, from her window, she can see more to the right then I can, and she jumped up and said "Jenn, that's a fire" we ran outside and the brand new building right by us was rolling black smoke all around the south east side of the building. We called the fire department and by the time they got there, the fire had tripled in size.

Luckily, the building is brand new, and the only people that had to evacuate were a few construction workers. I'm not sure exactly what caused it to light on fire, but it definitely made us nervous being so close to our company. Pieces of the roof came flying onto our grass and bushes completely on fire. Kind of scary if I do say so myself!

You can see the progress from start until the fire trucks arrived. I am very productive at work, I know!

Today's thoughts

Today, I am grateful for my job.

   We had to let one of my co-workers go today, and it made me realize how much I really do appreciate my job. I am so glad that I can wake up each morning knowing that I have a secure job and that I won't be fired when I get into work that day. It's nice to know I can pay my bills and still have some money in the end for fun....

How blessed I am to have such a phenomenal job with only an Associates degree. Not only does it build my accounting experience, but it allows me to budget my money better and gain more responsibility being an adult.

I love my job and couldn't be happier anywhere else! :)

Photography

I started a photography class this fall, and I crave my 3 hour classes every Tuesday night.

I never thought I'd be one to get into the whole photography field like everyone else in this world it seems, yet I learned that I'm actually not too terribly bad at it. Who wouldda guessed?

My teacher had me play around with his camera, and he asked me probably five times that first class if I've ever been a photographer before because he says I have an excellent eye for it. We then talked for a good half hour, and I got extremely excited about it all.

I am going to buy a MacBook Pro probably this next week or in about two weeks, and then from there, I want to get a nice SLR camera. Preferably a Canon, yet I am not going to be too picky with my first camera. I have already taken some pictures, and I can't wait to take more! :) How fun!

I am going to start taking senior pictures of some kids I know in the area and see how I feel about that. I have done quite a few senior announcements using photoshop and such, and I think it'd be fun to do it both. Take the pictures and create the invitations.

My header on my blog, for example, I created from scratch on my computer... well obviously I didn't create everything, I just put it together. I think it looks pretty nice, right?! ha....

I'll definitely keep you posted on how this goes, and if I actually end up doing this. I seem to talk big but never act. Those days are OVER! ha.... here are a couple pictures I took this weekend....

Well ha- these were taken on the iPhone, sooooooo obviously not best quality but I'm getting better. I promise..

Silver Lake(and of course, beautiful Leska)

HAIRCUT

So this picture is kind of blurry... but I cut 7 inches off my hair last night! what I thought was going to be a trim with layers turned out to be a short, shoulder length cut.... I am slowly warming up to it but still don't know exactly how I feel.... let me know what you think. ha... you can be honest too.... I want to know outside opinions!

Cruises, Scooters, and White Vinyl Fences

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It all started when the Mickelsen's decided to go on a family cruise to the Bahamas. They got in on Thursday, and I went over on Friday to go visit Kara and see her nice tan and see pictures.

We started getting all excited and antsy and went searching for our next cruise and started planning it for next year... which by the way is going to be absolutely amazing!

We then went to dinner and when we were pulling in, we noticed that Josh and Nicole were out by his scooters and I wanted to see his new one. He seems to always have a new one, but they're kinda fun so we ride them around a lot :).

He showed me his brand new one that had only 2 miles on it. I told him I wanted to ride it but I wasn't meaning I had to right then. Apparently the guys we were with thought Kara and I wanted to go on a ride right then. After going inside, the boys, david and adam, came and asked us to go for a ride with them so we said sure and off we went. I hopped on the back of Adam's and Kara with David.

We reach a stop sign as we approach the exit of Mickelsen's neighborhood, we started to turn the corner, yet Adam overestimated the turning time, and we began to take a very very wide turn- as we were getting closer to the fence across the small street, I realized that no, we were not turning, yet we were heading straight for the fence!

Why weren't we turning?

Turn, Turn Turn... !!!

BAM! white fence in my face!

As I pictured the scooter plummeting to it's death, I did not want to participate in that occasion, so I bailed the bike and jumped off right as we destroyed the neighbors beautiful white vinyl fence. I still hit the fence but I don't really remember much after jumping off. I cannot tell you how I swelled my ankle, tore off many layers of my skin on my shin and ankle or how my eye got a nice bruise and scratch, but I can tell you that I somehow got over to Kara and David's bike by myself. ha...

My head throbbed, but after a few meds, I was feeling much better. Kara says I did a little high pitched, short scream but then again, I have no recollection of the sort. haha.

Poor Adam was scraped up pretty bad. He had never driven a scooter, and then having a girl on the back makes things even worse since he has to balance weight. I feel bad for him, yet then again if I knew it was his first time driving one, I can guarantee either I would have driven, or I wouldn't have gone at all....

Overall it was actually pretty funny thinking about it, but then again Josh's scooter only had 2 miles on it, and the thin little plastic protective covers were still on the seats and front..... ah man!

So...moral of the story.... if you are tempted to ride on a the back of a scooter, stick with a harley davidson cruiser. Harder to wreck. HA.... or better off.... make a guy take you for a ride in his lifted dodge :)

.wow.

I can't help but wonder how people do not believe in a Supreme Being.

Where did the flowers get their scent? How do trees produce such wonderful fruit? How do animals and bugs and even people know how to act and react to situations in life?

It's amazing to me how powerful and perfect God is. I sat outside last night and looked out at the stars. It blows my mind when I imagine that He has worlds without number... just as the sands of the sea. I cannot even comprehend or begin to comprehend what that is like. Wow. So incredible.

It also completely baffles me how people indeed believe that there is no life after this life. Why would God create us to rot in the ground? Our spirits are merely in a borrowed, temporary body but one day we will all die, and our spirits will be resurected just as Christ and we will live after this life :) It will not be until then that I will fully understand the mysteries of God and how the world was created.

I am antsy and impatient to find out, yet in no way am I ready to leave this life... so i can wait Ü

Today I am grateful for a messy purse.



On Saturday, a few girl friends and I got all dressed up for a night out. We went to Olive Garden and took full advantage of the fact that everyone there thought we were completely wasted. We had the waiters (who were very good looking by the way) all stopping to talk and say goodbye as they left, and our waiter loved us! :) He just kept bringing us more and more stuff and even gave us a whole bunch of breadsticks to go when we left. It was beautiful! ha





He also brought us a big glass full of the Olive Garden Andes mints. I was so excited with the fact that I usually only get one mint, so I grabbed the glass and poured all the mints in my purse. Carlie actually never even knew we got mints because I hoarded them all to myself. Well, that wonderful idea of mine definitely came back to bite me as I forgot they were in my purse the next day. I left my purse in my car when I went to Mickelsen's for Benson's blessing bbq after church.... I ran over to the church a little later because I had to bring a salad to "Break the fast." when I got back into my car I was enjoying to wonderful smell of mint chocolate until it hit me why I was smelling this in my steaming hot car. The MINTS!


I kind of freaked out as I opened my nice Kathy purse to find it smothered in chocolate. I ran home and pulled everything out of the purse, and luckily I had so many papers and junk in there that I really didn't get chocolate on the lining of the purse. There was a little here and there but it was mostly all over my receipts and wallet... I even threw away a $20 bill because I didn't know what it was! ha.... no worries though, I figured it out quickly and just washed it off! :)




I now know to 1.never act drunk in public 2. never steal and 3. never skip relief society for a family bbq. ha!

Infatuations

Today at work, I was sitting and just thinking about stupid things I am completely infatuated with.

First off- farmers/cowboys.

How can this not be your fantasy husband?

I was at the Days of 47 rodeo the other day, and I could not stop staring at all the boys in their cowboy boots and Stetsons. I think a lot of it is that cowboys and farmers in general remind me of my dad, and the stories he'd tell of when he was a teenager and mid 20's. He was truly the Man from Snowy River.... It's just odd to me that such a city girl, like my mom, could fall in love with someone of such a simple and plain lifestyle. Besides their rough, tough manly-ness.. I think the biggest thing that attracts me to these men is their work ethic. I'm pretty sure about 99% of men I date in Utah have less drive than me in life, and a good majority of them are more feminine than me. You may laugh, but it is a very true statement.

Granted, the stereotype of these type of people is very real in some cases, so to avoid finding myself living white trash the rest of my life, I have decided on the following:

Marry a man who grew up or worked on a farm, yet is now a business man. We live on the outskirts of a big town with a lot of land and some animals. What a perfect life that would be... too bad I won't be having that luxury anytime soon... living on a farm..... and especially getting married...

See, look how cute!! :)

Okay, infatuation #2. Hair. I love hair. (That reminds me of that youtube video of "shoes" Sarah, you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about hahaha)

Ever since I was young, I have always loved doing people's hair. The first time I did someone's hair for a dance was when I was a freshman in high school, and Christianne was going to homecoming. Well, maybe I was a sophomore. I don't remember. I remember that poor Christianne's hair was a little lopsided, but she just said it looked good and I let her believe it.... I feel bad now though! ha....

The far one was just an updo for a dance, but this one was my favorite I've done on myself.. It was a side pony tail all curled and pinned. The back looked way rad. I was extremely proud of myself for this :)


I would love to learn more ways to do pretty hair! ha

I mostly love up-dos, but I always notice people's hair. I love when boys have a beautifully clean cut look with their hair done nicely, and when girls do their hair all nice when they go out for the night. I know I don't do my hair most of the time, but I still love to actually do hair. Mine and anyone elses. I always wanted to be a beautition, but that idea got shot down real quick from my family. Maybe one day I'll go to beauty school....maybe....

Last infatuation of the day: Peanut Butter. I love everything peanut butter flavored. well anything besides ritz bits. I ate peanut butter m&m's today and my mind was blown away by how such greatness can be packed inside such a small piece of chocolate coated candy. Amazes me.

I also put peanut butter in my protein shakes after my workouts (great shake: EAS chocolate protein, frozen berries from Costco, and Adam's peanut butter. Sounds funny. but it's ridiculously amazing)

I love pure peanut butter sandwiches, and peanut butter cookies.

What would the world be like withouth this tasty substance?! :)

I think that's all for today. I have plenty more, but those are definitely my top three....

Wal-Mart

Yes. It IS as satanic as this picture portrays.

Let the story begin.

It all began when I wanted a cover for my phone. Just one that came with a case and a screen protector. Not too big of a request, right?! Wrong.

I drive to the closest Wal-Mart to my house because clearly I thought it would be the cheapest place to find something a decent price. I found the case I wanted, and checked out and went into my car. I opened my case and it looked as if someone else had already opened this up and had taken the screen protector. I found that very strange, yet I sat in my car and stared at it all for a good ten minutes until I realized that Hello, retard... it's not in there.

I walked out of the car and back into the store. went and got a new case and exchanged it for the old one. Simple enough.

As I was walking back to my car I realized again, Hello, retard! Why didn't I check to make sure there was a screen protector? Of course, as I rummaged through the box yet another time, there was none of the kind. Frustrated and annoyed, I went back to the customer service and had to convince them that I was not going into my car and stealing the covers as I was being accused of time and time again. After much discussion, I was able to get a new cover and this time I opened every box in the store until I found exactly what I needed.

Oh the things I do for this little phone.

So then the next day, I need my oil changed. Why in the world I chose Wal-Mart...don't even ask.

I was told my wait time was 30 mintues. Perfect. I had someone to be in an hour and a half and that would give me plenty of time to get home, change out of work clothes, and drive up to Murray.

45 mintues later, I still hadnt heard them announce my name in the store, so I went to check the status on my car. This was my conversation with the man:

"Is the Nissan ready for pick up?"

"Oh, looks like it will be about 45 minues to an hour longer."

"45 minutes?! I've already been waiting 45 minutes, what is the hold up?"

"We had two cars ahead of you to service."

"Are you sure? I'm pretty positive when I got here, there were no cars in front of me."

"Well, they were emergencies. These customers had to be out of here in a half hour."

"Well are you going to break me a deal and give me some type of discount because I had somewhere to be at 7 and it's already nearly 6:30"

"Unfortuanately, we cannot do that. But we will give you free window wipers and fluid."

"Alright, whatever."

I realized why they had put be behind two cars. That is because the cars were a fetchin 5 series bmw, and a cadillac cts.

No worries though, I got my car at 7:20 and was only about 45 minutes late. No big deal. ha....

I now know why my mother refuses to shop at good ol' Wal-Mart.

Going Home!

I've been counting down the weeks, days, and hours that my flight leaves to go back home for a few days.

Alas the time has finally come! I fly out early tomorrow morning around 6 am and get into spokane at 10. I have one layover in Seattle which is a bummer, but oh well. I'm so excited that I can't even concentrate on work right now (Therefore the reasoning behind blogging ha)

My dad and Chris will be at scout camp so that kind of stinks, but my mom, Ali and Hunter will all be at home. Mom and Alisyn don't know I'm coming home yet. To be honest, I don't think my mom will be too terribly excited, but Alisyn will go CRAZY! I don't care what anyone says, I'm her favorite sibling! :) Gosh I miss my family!

It's kind of funny because my mom and the kids are actually taking a trip to Idaho, Utah and Arizona and they leave while I'm still in Washington! HA. Maybe that'll change when they know I'm coming home?! Who knows- probably not.. but that's okay because they leave sunday and I fly out early monday morning.

I miss my dads huge hugs and corny jokes (I know, I know... I've always admitted to hating those). I miss my mom's FOOD and her cute cute little smile. I miss my siblings for their amazing examples and their humor. I really think I have the funniest family anyone has ever seen. They are hysterical!

ahh yay. I'm coming home!

Friday was most definitely in the top ten happiest moments in my life. ha

I got my teeth FINALLY completed and I now have a beautiful, white porcelain smile. My temporary teeth were in my mouth longer than we all expected due to healing issues with my gums. The teeth would really irritate my gums causing a lot of pain and bruising, and then I would get blood into my temps making my teeth look black and it was just a nasty mess....

I love having veneers. Finally I don't look absolutely ridiculous when I smile.

Other than that, life has been pretty good. I got to go to the cabin with a group of about 13 people this past weekend and we had a blast riding 4-wheelers in the rain and attemting to fish without a pole! :) It was a lot of fun. I think for once, I am actually loving being single. It's nice only having to support myself on my income, and though I should save a whole lot more than I do, I love having the feeling of being able to pay off all my expenses each month and still have a little money for spontaneous outings!

Sarah and Ryan also were down here this weekend but I only saw them for a few hours. They actually were there to greet me after my little surgery on Friday. It was a good surprise that's for sure! They are coming down this coming weekend so that'll be a lot of fun to actually be able to hang out with them for more than just a day.

It's hard for me to be in Utah when I have no family here. I get homesick way too much! I love being independent, don't get me wrong, but living with Megan's family and spending almost every day at the Mickelsen's, I just want to be with my family. I envy those who are close to their family or at least a sibling or too while being in college. I hate having to always travel to see my family but it's definitely always worth it!

Oh- one more thing before I finish... There's a Jr. High near by that I may start being the stunt coach for Cheer. I am SO stoked- I just have to figure out if my work schedule will coincide with their summer practice schedule. I am so excited!!!!

ok. the end.

iPhone

...alright, I did it....







I caved in and bought an iPhone.







It's amazing how worldly pleasures can make me so happy! haha

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

"All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother."- Abraham Lincoln

I just wanted to take a few minutes and express openly to my mom my gratitude to her for all she has done for me.

My mom is the one person in my life that I go to for all advice. She knows everything about me, and I am never afraid to tell her anything. I do not believe there is anyone else I have ever come in contact with that supports me more than she does.

I remember since I was a little kid, my mom would always stick up for me whenever I got in an argument with another sibling (ahem, sarah.) Sometimes it would be in my error, yet I still had my mom to back me up :) My mother also has always supported me with my decisions I make. She helped me try out for cheerleading my 8th grade year for my first year in high school. I remember her taking time to teach me to be sharp, and how I can get my jumps higher. She taught me especially how to project my voice. Sarah and I have spent many hours just laughing at her deep manly voice as she always told us that was the key to projection.

I also remember all of her countless hours she spent prepping me for Jr. Miss. She knew exactly how to calm me down, how to boost me up, and patiently watched my dance over and over and over. Following the performance she was more excited than I was that I was in the court, yet she knew what was ahead of her. She was my number one fan through it all! She came to every single parade, and gave me her cute little smile and wave as the float passed by. Coming to those parades took up every single saturday of that summer, yet those 2 mintues watching the float pass by seemed to be enough to justify the long drives often starting before 7 am. On one of these trips, we even experienced Alisyn's first Oreo. Neither one of us realized that she had never had one, but her excitment when eating that "black thing with frosting" as she put it, was something I'll never forget. She is such a sweetheart and is easily pleased :)

Though these experiences I've had with my mom have been great and unforgettable, I cannot and will not deny that the very best memory I have with her is one that will always and forever leave an impact in my life.

My mom has always been sensitive to the spirit and has taught us the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I cannot remember when we started this, but she would wake us all up at 5:30 every morning for scripture reading and prayers. We would talk and discuss the doctrines of the Gospel, and along with my father, she would answer many of our questions. Sometimes our questions would be very simple, yet other times they would be very in depth. They both somehow gave us a satisfying answer, and kept us intrigued in what we were learning. I'd be lying if I said I never fell asleep during scripture study, yet sometimes I got away with it as they only cared about Sarah sleeping since it was a daily occurance! ha

I will never be able to fully express my gratitude and love for the most amazing woman I know. She is a hero in my life and I am forever indebted to her for all she has done, or TRIED to do for me in my life! I can be pretty stubborn sometimes, but I definitely get that from her. She is amazing, and truly an angel on Earth! I love her so so so very much! I cannot fathom my life without her! I miss her more than anything, and I'm only 700 miles away.

What a wonderful, beautiful blessing it has been to be born into such a marvelous family!

Trials=Blessings

Some would say that the title of this blog is a complete oxymoron, yet it has been a definite testimony builder for me this past month. To start, the day before graduation, my dead tooth fell out. Yeah- don't know exactly how- but luckily Nichole was at my house and could kinda calm me down and make me laugh at the situation and then help me get to the dentist in one piece. Not only was I toothless, but I had to sing that night at a HUGE school appreciation dinner. Only the most important people who have contributed to the college, along with a few apostles were invited to this dinner. Thankfully, I got a temporary tooth in a little retainer I was able to wear!The next day, my graduation, my cousin, Cameron, passed away due to terrible cancer he'd been fighting for three years. Poor Cam was only 27 and married for two years. That same day I found out that a woman very very close to me that I worked with at the college has an extreme case of cancer that the dr's are very nervous about. A few days later, I totaled my little Mitsubishi while the other guy in the accident only crunched in his headlight and a little dent on the side. I was really angry but what can I do after it's already happened, right?!
At this point I was really upset with where my life was going and was not happy with where I was at. (Now I don't need to be confessing my depressions to you nor do I mean to make you feel bad for me.. this is all going somewhere, I swear.) I got the car stuff figured out and was informed that my insurance would pay for 7 days to rent a car. wow. I started to panic. Car shopping was fun at first, but only having worked at my job for about 2 weeks now, I couldn't get approved for anything.. I mean ANYTHING! I got extremely frustrated.

In the meantime, I went into the dentist again for him to fix my tooth that fell out. He said he would have to give me a veneer for that tooth, yet because it would have to be bridged, I would never be able to get braces. That thought terrified me, but he promply added that he would veneer my crooked tooth on my upper teeth as well. I started to cry to even think about having straight teeth. As I got to the dentist at 12:30 on friday the 24th, I did not anticipate staying there until about 5:45, but I did... and it was all worth it because he ended up giving me a full set of 6 veneers on the top, and they look beautiful! I seriously don't even know how to explain how grateful I am to be able to have a new smile!


A little stress was lifted off my shoulders as I no longer had to worry about my temporary tooth getting all ruined inside it's little retainer, and I had more time to focus on the car. I still couldn't get approved for anything and by this time, I only had 3 days to find a car. I got to talking with a guy my roommate referred me to and somehow I overheard him converse about how he went to his sister in laws nephews funeral in orem and that his family is originally from washington. We got to talking and sure enough, His sister in law is Tammy- who is a Merrill. We talked for a long time about my family, and we formed a little bond I guess you could say. He lowered the price of the car I was looking at significantly and my credit union finally approved me. Yesterday, I got my new car... an 06 Nissan Altima. It is a pretty car- and I'm so glad to finally have something other than my rental!


(That is kind of a cruddy picture of it- but It's a pretty nice little car!)


It's nice to be able to finally look back oh the past events and be appreciative for everything that has gone wrong haha. I don't think I would have ever gotten my teeth fixed, and I know I would have just kept pouring money into my car to make it keep running. How grateful I am for a great paying job that can actually help me not stress about the money going into my new investments! :)

And like Jack Black would say, my life is good...really good!

MEXICO!

Many of you know that I went on a complete spur of the moment Cruise to Ensenada, Mexico a couple weeks ago. We went with a group of 15. It was planned for about 3 weeks before we would leave, but I didn't have a passport, and was NOT about to pay a large lump sum to get my passport expedited, so I thought I wasn't going to be able to go. I was bummed, but my bank account was definitely smiling at me for my great decision to save save save. ha.

It only took about 4 days to find out through a travel agent that passports are not required until June 2009 for trips via boat to canada or mexico. I was so excited, I don't know how I didn't wet myself! :) We signed up and were good to go, but we had one problem. I wasn't 21. To go on a cruise without a parent or guardian, you must be 21, or have someone over 25 in the cabin with me. I felt like a child- but I can guarantee my mom wasn't about to come supervise this cruise. ha. Josh did a lot of calling around with me, and we found out that Allison is over 25, which is perfect because Josh was wanting to invite her anyways.. Everything was good again! :)

So to the actual interesting details of this story, we met at Mickelsen's on Wednesday, the 18th at like 6-ish and drove straight through the night to San Diego to board the boat at noon. Why we were all stupid enough to stay up all night, no one knows, but when we got to san diego, we all crashed and slept outside for a few hours before we had to get on the boat. It was a cold day, but very nice to get a little rest. We got to the dock at about 12:30, but due to our little international girl, Jenni, we had to wait for about an hour or so for her to clear some things through Canada so she could leave the states and return. Last thing we need is for a cute white girl to get stuck in the slums of Mexico. After a lot of issues and a lot of figuring details out, we finally got on the ship and were ready to have the best days of our lives! :) Who wouldn't want to spend 4 days, 3 nights, with me all day long?! I mean, seriously!? Ha just kidding.

Well, the cruise was absolutely phenomenal, and the memories we had are priceless! I got to gain stronger relationships with people I didn't know as well, and our group of friends bonded together a lot more. It makes me grateful for the kind of friends I have in my life. On two different occasions, the boys had to give two different girls a Priesthood Blessing. The power of those blessings were amazing, and the girls were able to be relieved from their pain and enjoy the vacation with us. Though the weather was not super sunny, it was still pretty warm, and the best part of all... ready for this?.....all you can eat dinner! Our waiter, Ivan, was great, and was soo good to us always letting us order about 15 things a piece. It's still kind of hard to adjust to paying for my food now. ha ha. Here's some fun pictures from the cruise. This blog is getting pretty lengthy, and no need to keep rambling on and on and on!


You have no idea how excited we were to finally be in San Diego and no longer in the car!
I had to pay him to take a picture with me, but in the long-run, he was happy he did. ha.. Jon and Jen

It was kinda weird that there were 2000 people on the Cruise and I managed to find a girl one night wearing my EXACT same outfit. Creepy, I don't know. ha... Funny thing is her and her friends ate breakfast with us that morning randomly. So weird.
This is our whole group on the formal night. The best group of friends I could ever ask for :)